Mustangs in the Movies: “Death Race” Starring a 2006 GT
— by Adam Pockross
There are plenty of movies that feature Mustangs in supporting roles, but not nearly enough of them give the thoroughbred proper lead billing like the A-lister she is. Paul W.S. Anderson’s dystopian driving orgy “Death Race” is one movie that gets it right.
Released in 2008, but presciently set in the economically crest-fallen future of 2012, “Death Race” stars Frankenstein’s Monster, a seemingly indestructible 2006 GT decked out with a supercharged 4.6L V8 and a couple of M134 Gatling guns, among other hell-raising modifications. Oil slicks? Check. Ejector seat? Check. Yep, Spy Hunter himself would’ve loved this ride.
Co-starring inside the aptly named Monster is another badass of Mustangian levels: Jason Statham. Statham plays “Jensen Ames”, a former NASCAR driver. Framed for the murder of his wife, Ames is tricked into driving in a no-guns-barred car race. There’s a catch, though: all the drivers are prisoners duking it out to the death for a chance to earn their freedom. To make things even sweeter, every driver gets a hot female prisoner to sit shotgun as their mostly-just-eye-candy navigator.
The film was originally imagined as a hover-car-featuring futuristic sequel to Death Race 2000, the 1975 cult classic starring pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone and post-Caine David Carradine. Alas, funding didn’t allow the special effects necessary to make cars hover, disappear and transform, so what you see is what you get: a heavily fortified, mean-as-a-bear-mother Mustang kicking the snot out of all would-be comers. Realism at its finest.